Monthly Archives: November 2021

What to Do When the Bible Bothers You

Posted on November 6, 2021 by salooper57

Why has this bothered me? Because it sounds as if Isaiah – and worse, Jesus – is saying that God doesn’t want people to hear or to see and so to turn to him and be healed. Such a calloused deity seems incompatible with the God I have known in Jesus, who loves even messy people and offers them his blessing. Nor does it fit with other passages in the Bible that unambiguously state that God wants all people to come to repentance and to be saved. Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: Presenting God as a “Cosmic Spoilsport”

Posted on November 5, 2021 by salooper57

I have always assumed, when I read this passage, that the entire temptation took place in a day, even in a few moments. But the text does not really say this, and I suspect that it is not so. Perhaps this temptation continued at intervals for days, or weeks, or even months.

The serpent began by asking a question—not that he cared how the woman answered the question. It was not an answer he was after. He only asked the question to prepare the ground of her mind for the seed of doubt he intended to plant. By prefacing his question with the words, “Did God really say,” he introduced uncertainty into the situation and into her mind. Continue reading →

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Wide Angle: The Story’s Told that Adam Jumped (But I’m Thinking that He Fell)

Posted on November 3, 2021 by salooper57

In a previous Wide Angle Post, we saw dazzling nebulae and listened to the ravishing symphony of streams and winds and waterfalls. We saw the pinnacle of creation – not a towering Mount Everest, not even a vast, trillion-starred galaxy … Continue reading →

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Wide Angle Series: It Was [Not] So

Posted on November 1, 2021 by salooper57

In ancient times leaders would place images of themselves throughout their kingdoms. (And they do it today, too – one need only think of Kim Il Jong, the North Korean head of state or, previously, Saddam Hussein.) Such images served to remind their subjects of their ruler.

When God made the earth, he intended to place his image everywhere, a constant reminder that he rules the world.  Humans were intended to be the living image of God, ruling creation (Genesis 1: 28) as God’s representatives, with his love and wisdom flowing through them to all creation Continue reading →

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